While China Faced West

While China Faced West PDF Author: James Claude Thomson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674951372
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
The years from 1928 to 1937 were the "Nanking decade" when the Chinese Nationalist government strove to build a new China with Western assistance. This was an interval of hope between the turbulence of the warlord-ridden twenties and the eight-year war with Japan that began in 1937. James Thomson explores the ways in which Americans, both missionaries and foundation representatives, tried to help the Chinese government and Chinese reformers undertake a transformation of rural society. His is the first in-depth study of these efforts to produce radical change and at the same time avoid the chaos and violence of revolution. Despite the conservatism of the right wing in the Kuomintang party dictatorship, this Nanking decade saw many promising beginnings. American missionaries--the largest group of Westerners in the Chinese hinterland--often took the initiative locally, and some rallied to support of China's first modern-minded government. They assisted both in rural reconstruction programs and in efforts of at ideological reform. Thomson analyzes the work of the National Christian Council in an area of Kiangsi province recently recovered from Communist rule. He also traces the deepening involvement of missionaries and the Chinese Christian Church in the "New Life Movement," sponsored by Chiang Kai-shek. Unhappily aware of the sharpening polarization of Chinese politics, these American reformers struggled in vain to steer clear of too close an identification with the ruling party. Yet they found themselves increasingly identified with the Nanking regime and their reform efforts obstructed by its disinclination or inability to revolutionize the Chinese countryside. In this way, American reformers in Nationalist China were forerunners of subsequent American attempts, under government sponsorship, to find a middle path between revolution and reaction in other situations of national upheaval. For this book, James Thomson has used hitherto unexplored archives that document the participation of American private citizens in the process of Chinese social, economic, and political change.

While China Faced West

While China Faced West PDF Author: James Claude Thomson
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674951372
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 336

Get Book Here

Book Description
The years from 1928 to 1937 were the "Nanking decade" when the Chinese Nationalist government strove to build a new China with Western assistance. This was an interval of hope between the turbulence of the warlord-ridden twenties and the eight-year war with Japan that began in 1937. James Thomson explores the ways in which Americans, both missionaries and foundation representatives, tried to help the Chinese government and Chinese reformers undertake a transformation of rural society. His is the first in-depth study of these efforts to produce radical change and at the same time avoid the chaos and violence of revolution. Despite the conservatism of the right wing in the Kuomintang party dictatorship, this Nanking decade saw many promising beginnings. American missionaries--the largest group of Westerners in the Chinese hinterland--often took the initiative locally, and some rallied to support of China's first modern-minded government. They assisted both in rural reconstruction programs and in efforts of at ideological reform. Thomson analyzes the work of the National Christian Council in an area of Kiangsi province recently recovered from Communist rule. He also traces the deepening involvement of missionaries and the Chinese Christian Church in the "New Life Movement," sponsored by Chiang Kai-shek. Unhappily aware of the sharpening polarization of Chinese politics, these American reformers struggled in vain to steer clear of too close an identification with the ruling party. Yet they found themselves increasingly identified with the Nanking regime and their reform efforts obstructed by its disinclination or inability to revolutionize the Chinese countryside. In this way, American reformers in Nationalist China were forerunners of subsequent American attempts, under government sponsorship, to find a middle path between revolution and reaction in other situations of national upheaval. For this book, James Thomson has used hitherto unexplored archives that document the participation of American private citizens in the process of Chinese social, economic, and political change.

While China Faced West. American Reformers in Nationalist China, 1928-1937

While China Faced West. American Reformers in Nationalist China, 1928-1937 PDF Author: James Claude Thomson (Jr)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


China Marches West

China Marches West PDF Author: Peter C Perdue
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674042026
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 748

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Book Description
From about 1600 to 1800, the Qing empire of China expanded to unprecedented size. Through astute diplomacy, economic investment, and a series of ambitious military campaigns into the heart of Central Eurasia, the Manchu rulers defeated the Zunghar Mongols, and brought all of modern Xinjiang and Mongolia under their control, while gaining dominant influence in Tibet. The China we know is a product of these vast conquests. Peter C. Perdue chronicles this little-known story of China's expansion into the northwestern frontier. Unlike previous Chinese dynasties, the Qing achieved lasting domination over the eastern half of the Eurasian continent. Rulers used forcible repression when faced with resistance, but also aimed to win over subject peoples by peaceful means. They invested heavily in the economic and administrative development of the frontier, promoted trade networks, and adapted ceremonies to the distinct regional cultures. Perdue thus illuminates how China came to rule Central Eurasia and how it justifies that control, what holds the Chinese nation together, and how its relations with the Islamic world and Mongolia developed. He offers valuable comparisons to other colonial empires and discusses the legacy left by China's frontier expansion. The Beijing government today faces unrest on its frontiers from peoples who reject its autocratic rule. At the same time, China has launched an ambitious development program in its interior that in many ways echoes the old Qing policies. China Marches West is a tour de force that will fundamentally alter the way we understand Central Eurasia.

China's Response to the West

China's Response to the West PDF Author: Ssu-yü Teng
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674120259
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
Contains primary source material.

Wealth and Power

Wealth and Power PDF Author: Orville Schell
Publisher:
ISBN: 0679643478
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 497

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Book Description
Two leading experts on China evaluate its rise throughout the past one hundred fifty years, sharing portraits of key intellectual and political leaders to explain how China transformed from a country under foreign assault to a world giant.

The Great American Mission

The Great American Mission PDF Author: David Ekbladh
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691152454
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 404

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Book Description
The Great American Mission traces how America's global modernization efforts during the twentieth century were a means to remake the world in its own image. David Ekbladh shows that the emerging concept of modernization combined existing development ideas from the Depression. He describes how ambitious New Deal programs like the Tennessee Valley Authority became symbols of American liberalism's ability to marshal the social sciences, state planning, civil society, and technology to produce extensive social and economic change. For proponents, it became a valuable weapon to check the influence of menacing ideologies such as Fascism and Communism. Modernization took on profound geopolitical importance as the United States grappled with these threats. After World War II, modernization remained a means to contain the growing influence of the Soviet Union. Ekbladh demonstrates how U.S.-led nation-building efforts in global hot spots, enlisting an array of nongovernmental groups and international organizations, were a basic part of American strategy in the Cold War. However, a close connection to the Vietnam War and the upheavals of the 1960s would discredit modernization. The end of the Cold War further obscured modernization's mission, but many of its assumptions regained prominence after September 11 as the United States moved to contain new threats. Using new sources and perspectives, The Great American Mission offers new and challenging interpretations of America's ideological motivations and humanitarian responsibilities abroad.

American Science and Modern China, 1876-1936

American Science and Modern China, 1876-1936 PDF Author: Peter Buck
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521227445
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Book Description
This essay in comparative history focuses on the transmission of scientific ideas and organizations from the United States to China.

Modern Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era

Modern Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era PDF Author: Merle Goldman
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674579118
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 484

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Book Description
One of the most creative and brilliant episodes in modern Chinese history, the cultural and literary flowering that takes the name of the May Fourth Movement, is the subject of this comprehensive and insightful book. This is the first study of modern Chinese literature that shows how China's Confucian traditions were combined with Western influences to create a literature of new values and consciousness for the Chinese people.

A Dame Full of Vim and Vigour

A Dame Full of Vim and Vigour PDF Author: Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134416733
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
First Published in 1999. Alice Middleton Boring was a remarkable woman who lived and worked in remarkable times. This feisty, head-strong scientist spent her life teaching biology in China, during some of the most tumultuous times in the country's history. Alice found herself continually distracted from science by civil war, revolution, the Japanese occupation, World War II (involving her internment and repatriation), and the upheaval which resulted in the creation of a new, socialist society. Nevertheless, throughout the turmoil she continued to publish scientific papers. In spite of her experiences, she remained deeply influenced by her time in China long after her return to the United States. Loyalty to the Chinese and an almost evangelical appreciation of her adopted culture permeated the rest of her personal and professional life.

In Difer Hoffnung Verwurzelt

In Difer Hoffnung Verwurzelt PDF Author: Barbara Hoster
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1351672789
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 539

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Book Description
This Festschrift is dedicated to the former Director and Editor-in-chief of the Monumenta Serica Institute in Sankt Augustin (Germany), Roman Malek, S.V.D. in recognition of his scholarly commitment to China. The two-volume work contains 40 articles by his academic colleagues, companions in faith, confreres, as well as by the staff of the Monumenta Serica Institute and the China-Zentrum e.V. (China Center). The contributions in English, German and Chinese pay homage to the jubilarian’s diverse research interests, covering the fields of Chinese Intellectual History, History of Christianity in China, Christianity in China Today, Other Religions in China, Chinese Language and Literature as well as the Encounter of Cultures.